December 2008 Entries

December 31st

Last post of the year, and my 31st Birthday. I was told that this is my Champagne Birthday; turning 31 on the 31st. Anyway, things are going great. We're having a nice New Year's Party at the Hunt Lodge tonight, business is going well with tons of hunters booked, and I don't live on the East Coast any longer.

The Texas Hunt Lodge is officially open now...we had our first clients stay with us this week, and all hunts were a success. We're booked fairly solid through all of January as well with 4 clients this weekend alone.

Here is a great clip I found on EHOWA.com that I like to call "Customer Service in 2009". Click Here to Listen
AB

December 18th

We're only 1 week away from the opening of the Texas Hunt Lodge. I'm getting Dish Network installed today, finishing putting in the sinks, hopefully hanging the Vent Hood in the Kitchen, and then finishing the Bar.

Then, next week will only be painting, cleaning, and furnishings left for the most part.

Joanie and I are headed to Austin tomorrow to do some ticket things and then attend JZ & Jennifer Zimmerman's X-mas party. We haven't been to Austin since the OU/Texas Game - Sarah's Wedding weekend. We'll probably go out Friday night, so if you're downtown, give us a call.

We've decided to host a New Year's Party this year as well at the Hunt lodge. View Evite Here. If you didn't receive the email that is because Joanie didn't have your email address (very likely) or we just don't like you anymore. Anyway, it's kind of the unveiling of our hard work from the past 3 months, a pre-grand opening. Please join us.
AB

December 11th

Happy 30th Birthday to my Sister, Courtney Hogenson...her birthday is tomorrow. She is hosting a Roller Skating Party out in Hollywood, CA; I'll be painting and installing trim in the Hunt Lodge.

So, I've been hunting my butt off lately, and have been fairly unsuccessful over the past 2 weeks. I have this Game Cam installed near a feeder on our place in Tarpley, and as you can see above, we have a little Elk Bull coming into feed.

I've hunted this guy for about 2 weeks now, and still haven't seen him in the flesh/fur. And when I say hunted, I mean getting up between 4:00-5:00am every morning, sitting out in 25 degree temperatures, and seeing nothing but little whitetail and racoons. I do have some Aoudad coming into the feeder as well, but I haven't seen anything trophy size yet.

The Texas Hunt Lodge is coming together nicely...we should have a complete renovation in about 2 weeks, and then our first round of clients arriving December 27th. We're getting a ton of traffic to the website these days and the phones are ringing steadily. This should pan out to be a good business for us. I'm also looking into obtaining 5000 acres in Hunt, TX
in January, so we'll be able to host even more hunters on a more frequent basis.

So, Joanie and I have been talking and we're thinking about hosting a New Year's Eve Wild Game Dinner and Party at the new Texas Hunt Lodge. We have room for about 8 guests to stay the night, and then I get great rates at the local hotels due to the hunting business. Let us know soon if you would be intersted in attending and we'll put you on the Invite List which will go out next week once we can guage everyone's interst.
AB

December 3rd

It's been a long month...the Texas Hunt Lodge accommodations are nearly finished. We'll have a couple of Grand Opening parties for Friends, clients and Hunt Partners in the area. Stay tuned for details. I shot this deer on Thanksgiving Day at a friends ranch in Kerr County...275 yard shot!

Other than that, we're starting to book a good number of Hunt Packages for Texas Hunt Lodge...it's about time we got some money coming in rather than going.

I'm about to file my first lawsuit ever...have attorny's working on filing now in Federal Court. Basically, I've been getting the run around for a large some of money that I earned, and now the guy is trying to drag my name through the mud in the ticket industry, so I'm left with no choice but to let the courts figure it out. Should be interesting.

Joanie got a job today, other than working on the Hunt Lodge and Southern Sports Travel. She is a semi-permanent substitute teacher at Ingram High School. She'll be teaching Geometry 'til the Christmas Holidays, and then probably next semester as well.
AB